3rd July 2025, 10:58 PM
https://www.polygon.com/xbox/607616/micr...en-xbox-pc
This is where it's heading. MS is positioning their next XBox to essentially run on regular Windows, have access to multiple stores, be more or less "open", and just... basically use the exact same executables as the PC releases... that is, literally just running the PC version of the software without it needing to be "ported" exactly, just to add in features supporting XBox specific stuff like parties and the like... which many PC releases already do now.
I can't honestly think of a single way this is bad at this point. What it means is that I don't need to buy the next XBox, not even as a collector. They've essentially moved to making gaming PCs with XBox branding, and I'm all for it. Of course, now that 30% of Windows 11 code is now created by AI, and more and more staff are being let go at MS, on top of forcing AI into things, I'm growing more and more averse to anything MS related anyway (as well as Google for that matter), but this particular idea seems like a good one.
Sony, ball's in your court. Will the PS6 basically become a fancy Linux box, running exactly the same executables as the PC games, in just this same way? If so, we'll only need one or the other, or just a fancy PC. That'll make things far easier, and cheaper, for us as a whole, while these titans of industry, who have been selling their consoles at a loss for a few generations now, won't have to worry about that any more either.
Now, I have my doubts Sony would take that step, since they won the past two generations (against MS at least, Nintendo won overall with their Switch), but the very fact it's a possibility is telling.
Nintendo? No way on earth. Nintendo do their own thing and would never concede it, unless absolutely forced to. That said, things like the Steamdeck and NVidia Shield, and MS's own upcoming take on Switch style hardware with that Steamdeck concept of just being a portable PC (only running Windows instead of Linux, of course), well, Nintendo doesn't really have much to offer to make their hardware stand out at that point. It'll be just their games alone. So far, that's been enough, but if they erode their fan's good will further like they've been doing lately... they may push themselves into a corner.
Anyway, Sony and Nintendo adopting that strategy is purely speculative on my part, but MS at least seem to be taking the plunge.
This is where it's heading. MS is positioning their next XBox to essentially run on regular Windows, have access to multiple stores, be more or less "open", and just... basically use the exact same executables as the PC releases... that is, literally just running the PC version of the software without it needing to be "ported" exactly, just to add in features supporting XBox specific stuff like parties and the like... which many PC releases already do now.
I can't honestly think of a single way this is bad at this point. What it means is that I don't need to buy the next XBox, not even as a collector. They've essentially moved to making gaming PCs with XBox branding, and I'm all for it. Of course, now that 30% of Windows 11 code is now created by AI, and more and more staff are being let go at MS, on top of forcing AI into things, I'm growing more and more averse to anything MS related anyway (as well as Google for that matter), but this particular idea seems like a good one.
Sony, ball's in your court. Will the PS6 basically become a fancy Linux box, running exactly the same executables as the PC games, in just this same way? If so, we'll only need one or the other, or just a fancy PC. That'll make things far easier, and cheaper, for us as a whole, while these titans of industry, who have been selling their consoles at a loss for a few generations now, won't have to worry about that any more either.
Now, I have my doubts Sony would take that step, since they won the past two generations (against MS at least, Nintendo won overall with their Switch), but the very fact it's a possibility is telling.
Nintendo? No way on earth. Nintendo do their own thing and would never concede it, unless absolutely forced to. That said, things like the Steamdeck and NVidia Shield, and MS's own upcoming take on Switch style hardware with that Steamdeck concept of just being a portable PC (only running Windows instead of Linux, of course), well, Nintendo doesn't really have much to offer to make their hardware stand out at that point. It'll be just their games alone. So far, that's been enough, but if they erode their fan's good will further like they've been doing lately... they may push themselves into a corner.
Anyway, Sony and Nintendo adopting that strategy is purely speculative on my part, but MS at least seem to be taking the plunge.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
